The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-02-27
CATHOLICS AND MORMONs.

In the present attack upon the liber-
ties of the NJ ormons, there is much
that should alarm that great body OF
religionists, the Catholics. 1t is con-
tended by the people of this Territory
that in carrying to its logical result the
nefarious doctrine that the end justifes
the means, Congress is establishing
dangerous precedents, which must
eventually prove largely destructive of
American freedom; it is pointed out
e t every person interested in the
maintenance of free institutions should
concern himself to see thatIPmemorial
rights are not trampIed upon for
the purpose, even OF uprooting
supposed evil. Good government
like good surgery, requires careful
methods. The butcher may amputate
the gangrenous foot with his cleaver,
but either death from bleeding or blood
poisoning will ensue, or the patient will
be permanently debilitated by the
severity OF the shock and its attendant
evils; so in government, the immutable
principles and presidents of freedom
must not be violated, if we would pre-
serve our liberties and institutions in
tact.
But the danger is so remote, that few
sense it. The class of people to whom
we refer, however, have been so often
the objects of unjust attack, so often
denounced as traitors, and have heard
their doctrines so frequently branded as
reasonable, that they, at least, should
n& stand idly by, when Others
are similarly villifed. Nor will the
thoughtful Catholic fail to see in the
present assaults upon the Mormons, a
fruitful source of danger to his own
rights of conscience. What the Latter
day Saint is now contending for is, in
many respects, identical with those
principles for which the Catholic has
unfortunately, had to contend in the
past, and for which, it is not impossible,
he may be compelled to struggle in the
future. The objection to Catholicism
has been, both in Eugland and the
United States, that it taught the su-
premacy of the Sovereign Pontiff, and
was therefore reasonable in its ten
dency.
The English Catholics, it was
said, were not Englishmen; the
American Catholics, we are told,
are not Americans-the are a separate
people, living morally and politically in.
communion with their brethren scat
tered over the glober We have been
assured that an American Catholic
looks upon a French Catholic as his
and upon an American
Protestant as an alien. This doctrine
in the time of Elizabeth led to the en-
of penal statutes against Cath
olics because the Pope issued q bull
against that monarch; it served also to
the civil disabilities of that
unhappy class of people, until, in the
light of recent days, it was seen how in
famous it was to punish men; supposed
to be disloyal in belief, but who were
patriots in practice.
While the opposition to the Catholic
religion has notresulted in disoualifv-
ing laws in this country, vet
parties have frequently appeared that
needed only the opportunity to make
the profession of Catholicism a serions
matter. The American" party recently
in California, and now spread
ing throughout the United States. is
said to have strong plank on this sub
Jet. Certain it is, however, that the
Know Nothings" of 1886 were ex-
'remely opposed to "secretarian inter
ference" in legislation, and were bitterly
hostile to the assumptions OF the
Pope" 1t is within the remembrance
If all that the defeat of Mr.. Blaine is at
'-ibuted to the unhappy ALTERATION of
he unfortunate Burchard. in describing
he Democratic party as the party of
Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" The
emark, though ridiculous from its